Title 10, Title 10 and Civil Procedure — Procedure in Particular Actions

The person to whom the writ is directed shall state in his or her return on the writ: (1) Whether he or she has or has not the party in his or her custody or power or under restraint; (2) If he or she has the party in his or her custody or power or under restraint, he or she shal…

The return or statement shall be signed by the person making it, and it shall also be sworn to by him or her, unless he or she be a sworn public officer and shall make the return in his or her official capacity.

At the commencement of a civil action, a writ, commanding the arrest of any person not exempt by law from arrest, shall be issued from the superior court or from any district court only after application to a justice thereof, who may, in his or her discretion, order the issuance …

All assignments, transfers, and conveyances of property made by a debtor during his or her imprisonment, for the payment or security of any debt, except that of the committing creditor, shall be utterly void, unless made for the benefit of all his or her creditors in proportion t…

If any deputy sheriff, town sergeant, constable or the warden of the adult correctional institutions shall take or receive from any prisoner in his or her custody any bond, obligation, covenant, promise, or assurance whatsoever, to indemnify and save harmless the person taking th…

Whenever any person shall be imprisoned in or committed to the adult correctional institution upon original writ, mesne process, execution, or surrender or commitment by bail, in any action whatsoever, the party at whose suit the person is imprisoned, or committed for the benefit…

In case of default made in payment of the prisoner’s board, as required in § 10-10-12, the warden shall discharge such prisoner from the institution, stating in his or her formal discharge on the records of the institution the reason for the discharge.

The amount thus paid by the creditor, for the board of the prisoner so imprisoned at his or her suit, shall be added to and form a part of the costs of commitment and detention; and as such costs, shall be paid by the prisoner in the then existing or any future proceedings which …

An original writ of arrest issued from the superior court shall be substantially in the following form: THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND. SC. To the sheriffs of our several counties, or to their deputies, (SEAL) Greeting: We command you to arrest the body of .......... of .......... , i…

An original writ of arrest issued from a district court shall be substantially in the following form: THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND. SC. To the sheriff of the county of .......... , his or her deputies, or to either of the town sergeants or constables in said county, (SEAL) Greeting:…

No female shall be arrested on original writ in any action founded on contract.

No person entitled to vote shall be liable to arrest upon any civil process on the days of election of city or town officers, of state officers, representatives in congress, or of electors of president and vice-president of the United States, or on the day preceding or on the day…

No officer, noncommissioned officer, or private shall be arrested on civil process while going to, or coming from, or remaining at any place which he or she shall have been ordered to attend for the election of any military officer or the performance of any military duty.

Every officer who shall arrest any person by virtue of any writ of arrest, in a civil action, shall keep the person in safe custody until he or she is discharged pursuant to law.

Every clerk of any court, issuing an execution against any person, shall note on the margin of the execution the cause of action on which the execution issued, to the end that the warden of the adult correctional institutions may ascertain whether the person, if committed, is ent…

If no memorandum as described in § 10-10-8 is made by the clerk on any execution, or if the officer shall not note the cause of action as provided in § 10-10-8 in his or her commitment, the warden of the adult correctional institutions shall be held harmless if he or she permits …

Every officer who shall so arrest any person pursuant to chapter 10 of this title, shall let the person arrested to bail, upon his or her giving sufficient surety for his or her appearance at the court to which such writ or process shall be returnable and to abide the final judgm…

If the principal shall be committed by the bail to a correctional institution after the final judgment, or if, being surrendered by his or her bail to the court before which the action is pending against bail, he or she shall be committed by the court to a correctional institutio…

If the principal be not taken in execution within thirty (30) days after final judgment against him or her when committed for want of bail, or when committed by his or her bail or by the court to which his or her bail shall have surrendered him or her before such final judgment, …

The death of the principal before the return day of the execution against him or her shall discharge the bail.

Whenever the principal shall avoid, so that his or her goods and chattels, real estate or other property subject to levy on execution, cannot be found to satisfy the execution, nor his or her body be found to be taken thereby, the plaintiff in the writ of arrest may bring a civil…

The plaintiff in any suit in which judgment shall be rendered in the district court, and the amount of debt, costs and interest due upon the judgment of the district court shall exceed five thousand dollars ($5000), shall be entitled to maintain an action against the bail in the …

No action against the bail shall be commenced unless it is within two (2) years next after the entering up of final judgment against the principal; provided, that if by reason of the absence of the bail from the state, service of process could not have been made within the time b…

The bail may have remedy by a civil action against his or her principal for all damages sustained by his or her becoming bail.

Whoever shall become bail for any person may give bond to a member of the division of sheriffs, if the writ or process shall be served by the division of sheriffs; and if the writ or process shall be served by a town sergeant or constable, the bail bond in such case shall be give…

Instead of giving bond as provided in § 10-11-2, the person becoming bail may indorse his or her Christian name and surname on the back of the writ or process, which shall hold him or her as bail to the same extent as if he or she had executed and delivered a formal bail bond.

Every person committed to a correctional institution in any county, except the county of Providence, by virtue of an arrest on any writ or process in any civil action, or by surrender of former bail in the same action, shall be let to bail or to new bail, as the case may be, in m…

Every person committed to a correctional institution in the county of Providence, on any writ or process in any civil action or by surrender of former bail in the same action, may be let to bail, or to new bail as the case may be, by the warden of the institution or by the office…

In case bail be taken by the warden, the person becoming bail shall give bond to the warden in a penal sum equal to the damages stated in the writ; but if bail be taken by the officer who served the writ, the person becoming bail may give such bond to the officer, or may indorse …

Any person who shall become bail in any civil action, either by giving bail bond to the officer serving the writ therein or by indorsing the writ, or by giving bond to the warden of the adult correctional institutions, may, during the pendency of the action, discharge himself or …

A person may also, at any time before final judgment against him or her as bail, discharge himself or herself as bail in either of the two following modes: (1) By committing his or her principal to a correctional institution in the county in which he or she became bail or in whic…

If the principal shall be so surrendered by his or her bail to the court in which the original action is pending, he or she shall be by such court committed to a correctional institution, and there remain to be taken in execution or to be discharged in the same manner as though c…

No action shall be maintained for the breach of any bond given for the liberty of the jail yard as provided in § 10-12-2, unless the action is brought within one year after the time the breach was committed.

The limits of each county shall be the limits of the jail yard of the county.

Any person confined in any correctional institution who shall give bond as provided in § 10-12-2 may go into any building or place within the exterior limits of the yard, complying with the bond and conforming to law.

No person committed on execution shall have the liberty of the prison yard for more than thirty (30) days after his or her commitment, unless he or she shall within the thirty (30) days execute an assignment of all his or her estate of every kind not exempted from attachment by l…

The warden receiving an assignment as provided in § 10-12-5 shall not be held responsible to any person for any property of any assignor, except such as he or she has actually received into his or her possession; provided, he or she shall assign all the interest he or she shall o…

If any person so committed shall neglect to render himself or herself to the warden of the institution, in the institution, within thirty (30) days, or make an assignment as provided in § 10-12-5, he or she shall be deemed to have committed an escape under his or her bond for the…

If the creditor shall obtain judgment on the bond for the breach of the condition thereof, he or she shall recover his or her just debt, with interest from the time judgment was rendered in the original suit, and twelve percent (12%) interest on the debt for his or her damages, a…

Except as is otherwise provided by § 10-13-2, any person who shall be imprisoned for debt whether on a writ of arrest issued at the commencement of an action, mesne process, or execution, or on execution awarded against him or her as defendant in any action to recover the possess…

Whenever any prisoner shall present a certificate, as is prescribed in § 10-13-9, to the warden of the institution in which he or she is imprisoned, the warden shall immediately discharge him or her from his or her commitment at the suit of the creditor named in the certificate.

No person who has been admitted to take the oath as provided in § 10-13-8 shall be retained in a correctional institution for the prison fees or for the fees of the justice before whom he or she may have taken such oath.

No warden of any institution receiving an assignment under § 10-13-7 shall be held responsible to any person for any property of any assignor, except such as he or she has actually received into his or her possession; provided, that he or she shall assign all the interest he or s…

If a debtor take out a citation to his or her committing creditor and have the citation served and subsequently withdraw the citation, or if upon trial he or she shall not be admitted to take the oath prescribed in § 10-13-8, he or she shall not be entitled to another citation to…

The court before which any action is pending for the recovery of any debt or demand for which the defendant, if committed to a correctional institution thereon, would be entitled to be admitted to take the oath as provided in § 10-13-8, may administer the oath to the defendant as…

The defendant in such case may apply to the court in which the action is pending for a citation to the creditor to appear at the court to show cause why the defendant should not be admitted to take the oath.